The Australian police, which is investigating the murder of Toyah Cordingley on a beach in north Queensland, has identified a male Indian nurse as the most probable suspect in her murder.
According to a report in The Australian news portal, the Indian nurse was last seen with scratch marks and fled overseas after the attack. Other media reports said the suspect fled to his hometown in India leaving his family behind.
According to the portal, the suspect, Rajwinder Singh, is a Queensland Health-registered nurse working at Innisfail hospital, south of Cairns. He booked a flight to India on the night of the murder and then left the next day.
The 24-year-old Cordingley, a pharmacy worker, was brutally attacked while walking her dog in broad daylight on Wangetti Beach, 40km north of Cairns, on Sunday, Oct. 21.
Her body was found in sand dunes by her father the next morning, prompting an outpouring of grief and anger by the public and a mounting campaign by residents to help find her killer, the portal reported.
The Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service, where Singh worked, confirmed that the nurse left work shortly after Toyah’s murder and was no longer an employee.
“As it is under police investigation we are not making comment at this time,” the portal quoted a health service spokesman as saying.
According to the Sunday Mail newspaper, the police questioned the hospital about the nurse’s behavior, movements, and work history.
Singh first came under suspicion when the local police triangulated Toyah’s mobile phone and identified his car in CCTV and dash camera footage. According to Seven News, Singh was driving his car erratically in the Cairns area on the night of the murder.
Police last month released CCTV footage of 68 vehicles they wanted to identify as part of the probe, the Australian wrote.
Queensland police and the Australian Federal Police are working with Interpol and authorities in India, the portal wrote adding that Australia has an extradition agreement with India.